Chapter Fifteen

"How much do you hate me?" Hayes asks me when he arrives at my room on Tuesday morning.

For the past two days, Lily and I have been training due to our not so brightest idea recently. We thought it would be harmless to create a rainbow in my room. How wrong were we? Very. We set half my room on fire and the only way we could put it out was all on me.

When Abe found out how careless his daughters were, he made it his job to make sure nothing like that happened again. He ordered Hayes and Reid to be our personal trainers. They were the only two, other than the few Abe entrusted with the secrets, who knew about mine and Lily's greatest powers. They're our guardians after all, they had the right to know and of course Lily's boyfriend knew about our powers. But it wasn't because she loved him so much to tell him it was because they didn't have any other options but to tell him. My life was in danger and they told him Lily was the seer to save me.

Abe felt like we needed to keep our powers under control and we all agreed with him but if I knew what was in stored for us, I wouldn't have been as eager to train.

Hayes made a very fast paced, heart pumping, and complicated work out to make me mentally strong. Every time I said the word "can't", he added on to my already long work out. So, I learned my lesson the first day and kept the word to myself. But I'm pretty sure he got what I was thinking by the way I glared at him.

"Do you really want to know?" I ask, lifting one of my eyebrow.

Before we started to train, he warned me I was going to hate him and I didn't believe him. I should have. He wasn't going easy on me and I thought since I'm his girlfriend, he'd loosen up but no he wasn't and he wouldn't.

He smirks. "It's barely the third day."

"And I'm already tired of it."

"It could be worse." He says as we walk down the stairs. "You could be Maya and train twice a day."

Hearing her name, my heart sinks. Two days ago, Hayes dropped the biggest bomb on me. He's dating Maya now and even though, I know it isn't real, I still don't like it. He said it's the only way to keep the rumors about us from growing. Others are starting to get suspicious about us and he had to do something to get them off our backs. I understand why he did it but I wish there's another way to do it.

They haven't made the big announcement yet. They're planning on going public this Friday at the show with the huge audience. They're hoping word would get around about their relationship and the suspicions will die down. That's the plan anyway.

At the bottom of the staircase, Maya is waiting for us. She gives me a small smile and I try to return it but it's so forced, I give up on it. She came to Lily's room the night before we left to talk to me.

"Princess Millian?" She said, knocking as she enters the room.

I glanced up from my songbook, surprised to see her.

"Are you busy?" She asked, looking at my songbook.

I closed it. "No." I told her, shaking my head. "Why?"

"I wanted to let you know, I would never had agreed to date Hayes to make you jealous or angry." She said. "He wasn't all there during our morning training and I knew something was bothering him. He didn't tell me about the situation he was in but I figured it had to be about you two. I let it slip out I knew about his secret relationship and I wanted to help in anyway I could." She explained. "He wasn't pleased I knew but he said I could help him, help both of you. When he told me about his idea, I didn't wanna do it because I knew how you felt about me from the first moment we met and I didn't wanna give you another reason to hate me. But he talked me into it and here we are."

I didn't hate Maya. When I first saw her, I was jealous but I could see why she thought I hated her. I used my royal title to have her run stupid errands for me to keep her away from Hayes as much as I could. It was wrong of me and I was glad she didn't hate me after that. I apologized to her and we moved on. I liked her even more when I discovered she had a soft spot for mine and Lily's favorite band.

But it didn't change how I felt about her pretending to date my boyfriend. I didn't think I would ever get used to it.

"Why do you want to help us?" I ask. "What's your real purpose?"

Her eyes widened in shock. "I..I" She sighed, heavily. "There is a purpose to why I decided to you guys. But I can't tell you. It's a secret I'm not ready to share to you guys yet."

"How do I know I can trust you?" I questioned.

"Because if I wanted to tell your secret, I would've done by now. King Abe would know and Hayes would be far away from you the second day I got here."

I rose an eyebrow. "You really believe my own father would trust you over me?"

"It isn't about trust. It's about evident and believe me there's plenty of it lying around." She replied. "The point is, your secret is safe and that's all that matters."

I have to believe she's telling the truth but I can't help but to think about her own secrets. She said she had a purpose to why she was helping us and I wanted to find out whether she tells me or I do some digging of my own, I'm going to find out.

On the way school, I look at the snow and I think about two things. The first one is, the time we had a big snowball fight and I think it's the first time I didn't hear Lily complaining about the snow or how cold it was. We were all having fun playing in the snow but I have to stop thinking about it because they were there too.

The second thing I think about is, the poem. I understood why Lily and I were told about the poem last summer because our younger self wanted us to find each other but months later, it appeared again.

Last week, I touched Lily's necklace and we both seen a quick image of an empty field. It wasn't the field of flowers Lily and I knew back on Arysn. This field we never saw before until that day. Along with seeing the field, a piece of the poem was spoken.

When the first snow falls, seven will rise.

When I first heard it, I didn't know what it meant but Lily figured it out at the end of August. It was a hint to our birthday but at the next moment, I don't have an idea what it meant. Neither does Lily. I thought at first it could mean something important was going to happen on the seventeenth but I didn't see how it related to the unknown field.

"I'm assuming by the way you're moving, you're just as sore as I am." Maya says coming to walk beside me.

"You're sore?" I ask, arching an eyebrow. "I would've never guessed."

She smiles. "I've only been training with Hayes for a week." She tells me. "He's tough but I like it."

That makes one of us. I think.

"Well, that's Hayes. He doesn't go easy on anyone."

"Not even you?" She ask, surprised.

"Especially not her." Hayes joins our conversation walking on the other side of me.

I had a feeling he wasn't going easy on me but hearing it from him made me wonder why he was so tough on me. I know Abe told him to train us but Hayes has other motives than making me mentally strong.

"You could loosen up just a little." I tell him, hoping he'll listen to me.

He looks at me with his grey eyes. "Not happening."

I roll my eyes. Of course he isn't. I won't be surprised if his work outs got even harder and challenging. That seems right up his alley.

We arrive to the school and I head for the cafeteria. I'm still trying to get my weight up and so far I'm doing good. I gained two pounds during the past week. Lily joins me this time and her plate is fuller than me.

"Are you that hungry?" I ask her, laughing.

She looks at me. "The way Reid is killing me." She shoots daggers at her guardian. "I need all the calories I can get."

When the bells rings, we head to English and on the way I see Mallory standing outside her office. She looks at the students walking pass, smiling at them. We make eye contact and I think about what Lily told me.

"You have more in common than you think."

I look away from her. I know she wanted me to walk into her office and speak to her but I couldn't. Not yet. I'm still angry with her for thinking for a split second I'd ever forgive them for what they did to me and thinking she understood how I was feeling. No one, except Lily through our bond, could understand how I feel.

I take my seat as my classmates begins to pile into the classroom. Mrs. Garner is at her desk, reading, and as soon as she bell rings, she closes her book and stands up.

"Today's writing assignment, is going to be a compare and contrast of two opposite." She speaks as she walks to the front of the class and all eyes are on her. "For example, light and dark. Positive and negative. Open and close. Whatever you choose, make sure it's something you can write about it."

"I can totally write a topic on girls." Greg jokes, making the class laugh.

"If it's inappropriate, you will be seeing Mrs. Kovok and you will read what you wrote." Mrs. Garner says. "So, choose wisely."

I think about what I can write about and there's only one thing my mind keeps going back to. My first relationship with Jason Shaws, the guy who cheated on me with my at the time best friend, Kara and the relationship I'm in now.

I experienced what I thought was love and what I now know is love. Both relationships, taught me different things and I jot down a list of cons and pros. Hate and love. It isn't long until I have an idea of how I want to write my assignment and I begin.

Love isn't all good but it's not all bad, either. I guess it depends on how you view it. I had two different prospectives on love. One is better than the other. Love is said to conquer all but it can destroy, too. Intentionally or not. It's hopeful. It gives you a peace of mind knowing that someday you can feel its presence but that's just for the hopeless. It blinds you to the point where you question if love truly exist anymore.

Having my heart broke, twice by Jason and Hayes, I did question love. I wondered why I was the one getting hurt and I blamed myself for it. If I wasn't so quick to fall in love, maybe I wouldn't had got my heart broken.

It's not just sunshine and rainbows. No there's clouds and storms. Love can act as you anchor. It's either holding you up against the waves or letting you sink.

The darkness come and he become my strong point. He picked me up every time I fell and I'm always going to be grateful for having him beside me when I need him.

It's up to you to see if it's a beautiful thing or ugly. Love can make you strong or become your greatest weakness. It can be your darkness or you light.

He become my light when only I saw was darkness and felt like I was sinking into the dark waters I created.

Love is selfish it wants you all to itself but there are days is can be truly selfless. It breaks your heart until there's nothing to pick up. It leaves you wondering why you weren't enough. But, it can also mend your heart. It builds you back up and you learn to trust love again.

I wasn't enough for Jason. He cheated on me and I wondered why I wasn't enough for him. But with Hayes I was more than enough. He thought lowly of himself and I thought he was more than what he thought of himself. He was worthy even if he thought otherwise.

Love can lie to those you love. Love can tell the truth, too. There are days where love hurts like hell, it's almost unbearable. Yet, it can be painless if you let it. Love can be a beautiful pain.

Getting my heart ripped out, was possible the worst feeling I had ever felt and getting back it still hurt. Loving someone with everything I had, hurt me but it's a pain I can bear because I know he feels the same way and that's something I won't ever complain about.

I turn in my writing as I walk out the class as the bell dismissed us, handing it to Mrs. Garner who stands at the door, collecting each paper.

"What did you write about?" I ask Lily as we head to our next class.

She looks away from Lucas and I'm glad there's only one more week left before Abe's keep a distance from his daughters order is up. Lily is longing to be near Lucas without the separation.

"Oh, I wrote about closeness and separation." She replies.

She really misses being near Lucas. I mean I would too if I was being kept away from Hayes. Those few days, he was gone to Europe, I was miserable. I needed him with me. But unlike Lily and Lucas Hayes is my guardian and he's always close by.

"One more week." I remind her. "And then you can be with him again."

"I can't wait." She mutters.

The morning classes flies by and Guardian Lynn's class isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think it's because of the training I've been doing recently. I don't think he could possible come up with something worse than Hayes.

Lily and I consume our weight in food during lunch and I'm pretty sure we had all eyes on us but at this point I didn't care. If Abe were to see us, I think he would be disappointed and disapproval of how we were eating. It wasn't very lady like.

In Mr. Dean's class we speak about how we wanted to set up our formation on the stage and what we wanted to wear before we get to work on the song. Mr. Dean already put both songs together so, we just had to learn the words.

As we sing, someone will stop us and throw their ideas in and Mr. Dean takes them in and try to incorporate them all in.

When class ends, Raine, Manny, and Star, the group Mr. Dean informed me about, walks over to me, keeping their distance. They're helping me write the songs for the upcoming play.

"Are you coming to write with us?" Star asks.

I shake my head. "I can't today. I have something else to do."

I can't tell them I have practice after school with Hayes.

"That's what you said yesterday." Raine points out.

"We really need your help." Manny says.

"I'm sorry. I'll help as soon as I can." I apologize.

"How soon?" Raine asks. "Mr. Dean needs the songs this week. Try outs are coming up." She reminds me.

I nod. "I know but-"

"Princess Millian." Hayes says, interrupting me.

I glance at him and he motions for me to come over to him. I excuse myself from the group and head over to Hayes.

"You trained yesterday. You can go work on the songs." He tells me. "If there's any time left, I'll put in a quick training."

I arch an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

He nods. "Maya needs to get her training in, anyway. I'll send James your way until I can get there."

"I'll try to make it as quick as I can." I promise him.

"Don't worry about. If you don't train today, we still have tomorrow." He says.

We part ways and I head for the library with the other three. We pick a spot away from everyone so we won't disturb them on whatever they're working on.

"What have you gotten so far?" I ask, sitting down.

"This." Star says, handing me papers.

I glance at it and it's the song for the villain and her friends. It'll be perfect for the play. I put the papers down and look at them.

"It's good. There's a few things, I would change but other than that it's good." I tell them. "What else do you have?"

"That's all." Raine says.

"Really?"

Mr. Dean gave us the music we needed last week and I thought they would've at least had more than one song done.

Manny shrugs. "We told you we needed your help."

"Okay, let's get to work then." I reply.

We split into two groups and work on the songs. I pair up with Star and we pick the music with a soft calm piano beat. We talk about how we wanted to use the music and decided it will be best to use as a duet between the two leading female characters.

We start working on the lyrics and once we start we can't stop. She tells me a line and I'll add on to it and soon we finish the song. Once we finish our song, we start from the beginning and play it with the music.

We have to make some small changes to fit but once we fix the mistakes, we move on to the next song. I check on the other group and help them on a part they're stuck on.

They're working on the fighting scene and the words are switching back from rapping to singing. They need help with the rhyming and I suggest a few words to help them continue on with the song.

I go back to Star and we have another slow song but it's a fun one. It's the last song of the play and I think everyone will enjoy it. We make the song about believing in yourself and being true to yourself and sometimes changing isn't a bad thing.

Once we complete all the five songs, six including the one I worked on a couple of weeks ago, we've been in the library for hours. When I walk outside, I notice it's already nighttime.

By halfway through, Hayes come to switch places with James and now we're heading to dinner.

"I don't think I'm going to train today." I tell him.

He shakes his head. "No. It's too late."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it would take that long to finish."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." He tells me.

"You're not going make me work twice as hard to tomorrow to make up from today, are you?"

He smirks that infuriating smirk and I know I shouldn't have asked him that. He says two little words and I know I'm in for a hell of a work out.

"We'll see."